Mobile app of the day: Waygo

I will admit from the off that Waygo might be one to watch rather than an app you will want to download immediately. But do read on, because its potential is huge. Waygo's core capability is translation – you point your handset's camera at the written word, and Waygo returns an English language translation. Imagine its value: Direction signs, menus, information leaflets, information from newspapers, all manner of foreign words can have their mystery revealed.

The translation happens on the device itself, so there's no need to be online. You can see the pinyin translation of each word, and can share translations via text, Facebook, Twitter and email. At present Waygo works for Chinese and Japanese only, but the developer promises that more languages will be added.

You get ten translations per day for free. That probably won't be enough for anyone travelling in China or Japan – and if you think you will need more there's an in-app purchase to upgrade the allowance.